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CORVALLIS - Two undergraduate students in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State University recently were recognized at the American Nuclear Society Student Conference in Madison, Wis., for their public communication efforts.

Sarah Kleeb, president of the ANS student chapter at OSU, and Kati Gray, vice president of the group, won awards for Outstanding Presentation in Policy and Outreach.

In their presentation, "The Footprints of Radiation: Spreading the Word," they spoke about their experiences teaching middle school students in the Saturday Academy.

"I feel we won because instead of talking about what needs to be done to educate the public, we actually went out and did it," Gray said. "I think people liked the fact that we could take what might be a heavy subject with adults and make it fun for kids."

Last February, Kleeb and Gray spent time with about 12 middle school students who had enrolled in the Saturday Academy. Meeting at the OSU Radiation Center, they took the middle school students on a tour of the building showing them the reactor and one of the labs, and had the children perform several experiments.

"After getting such positive feedback, I'm ready to take our class to more student groups and hopefully a broader age range," Gray said.